The global diabetes epidemic impacts pregnant women and their babies. This poster describes a rapid, low-cost, non-fasting screening assay proposed by PATH to be used at antenatal care visits. The test would enable interventions to prevent or delay diabetes in the mother and child.

This edition of PATH Today features our work to protect children from diarrheal disease, the use of mobile devices to diagnose tuberculosis and improve maternal health, and a profile of PATH donor Ann Hayes. The issue also provides information about our yearly reports to donors, workplace and planned giving, and the results of the meningitis vaccine campaign launch in sub-Saharan Africa.

This fact sheet from the Global Health Technologies Coalition provides specific recommendations to US policymakers about the role and engagement of the US government in a future advance market commitment.

This report provides an overview of Nicaragua's health system and diagnostic needs. It is supported by individual case studies on Chagas disease, dengue, and malaria in Nicaragua. These studies focus on several factors influencing the health care system in Nicaragua, including recent trends, regional and national control strategies, financing and partnerships, and the unmet clinical needs associated with each illness.

This issue of Directions in Global Health features a conversation with Chris Elias on the occasion of his ten-year anniversary as PATH’s president and CEO. It also highlights work to pave the way for a total market approach to family planning in Nicaragua and Vietnam, capitalize on the transformation potential of point-of-care tests, address gender’s impact on health, and design better health information systems for developing countries.

This issue of PATH Today highlights new, innovative technologies coming from the lab and shop at PATH, a spotlight on the December launch of the meningitis vaccine in Western Africa, and a tuberculosis project in Tanzania. Also noted is the 1+1 Challenge, expanding PATH’s presence with new country offices in Africa, and the announcement of a new leader for PATH's India country program.

In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new policy to guide activities for controlling tuberculosis (TB) infection. This report provides guidance on advocacy for political and financial support for TB infection control from donors and countries, widespread adoption of the WHO policy, and incorporation of it into national and local policies. The report also addresses advocacy for linkages with civil society organizations in the field to ensure demand for and implementation of the WHO policy to protect health workers, patients, and communities from TB transmission.

PATH conducted a detailed cost analysis in Nicaragua to understand the costs of each step required to perform viral load testing, beginning at the patient’s house and continuing to when the viral load testing result is actually communicated back to the patient’s antiretroviral therapy care provider. Using this information, PATH has developed a low-cost technology to extract HIV viral RNA at the point of care and stabilize it, removing the need for cold chain preservation of the specimen. Presented at: AACC 42nd Annual Oak Ridge Conference, April 22, 2010; San Jose, CA.

PATH has demonstrated the use of CaO for heat and a proprietary engineered phase change material (EPCM) to maintain an assay mixture within a narrow temperature range suitable for isothermal amplification. We are currently working to develop, integrate, and validate components of this NAAT kit. Presented at: AACC 42nd Annual Oak Ridge Conference, April 22, 2010; San Jose, CA.

The PATH-Lemos Chagas rapid test has great potential as a highly sensitive diagnostic test for Chagas disease, suitable for use at the point-of-care. Presented at: AACC 42nd Annual Oak Ridge Conference, April 22, 2010; San Jose, CA.

A report on work aimed to determine the main bacterial enteric pathogens causing diarrhea in children treated in emergency rooms in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. Presented at: 6th World Congress of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, November 21, 2009; Buenos Aires, Argentina.